SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 15, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Salt Lake City Police are searching for a suspect who is accused of groping a female jogger on 500 E. 1700 South, just south of Liberty Park, early Friday morning.
“We wanted to make the public aware of a situation that occurred Friday, at about 6 in the morning,” said Salt Lake City Police Department spokesman Detective Greg Wilking in a news conference Tuesday.
“A lady was jogging, she was headed southbound on 500 East, when a male approached her from behind and attacked her, groped her. Fortunately in this situation, our female jogger, she actually fought back.”
The victim told police that when she runs, she carries a small knife, especially at night. She had the knife in her hand when she was attacked.
“When the suspect grabbed her, she fought back, and subsequently stabbed the assailant a couple of times,” Wilking added.
“This wasn’t a large knife, so we’re not sure what happened with the suspect. Right now we don’t have any reports of him coming to a hospital to receive treatment. He possibly was stabbed in the leg and a couple of times in the chest, maybe in the arm. He may have small wounds to his torso, that’s where we believe most of the impact was.”
Wilking said the police are asking if anyone knows someone that showed up at work or school or at a hospital with these types of wounds, to get in touch with police immediately.
“This is a male, white,” Wilking added. “Described as wearing a gray sweatshirt, he was carrying a backpack, and we’re not sure about his age, anywhere from teenager up to his thirties.” He was described as about 5 feet 9 inches tall and 150 pounds, clean cut and clean looking. Wilking said the suspect may be local to that area. The jogger told police that when she started fighting the attacker off, he ran over to the bus stop that is in the area of 520 E. 1700 South and stopped there for a minute.
“She actually continued to go after her assailant, and he ran from that area onto Park Street or into the alley west of Park Street,” Wilking said. “She gave chase for a little bit then decided to go back home and make her report to police.”
Police are now testing the knife for DNA. It does not appear that there is any surveillance footage of the incident and there were no other witnesses.
Wilking said that anyone who is out at night or in the darkness should be aware of their surroundings.
“She was prepared, she took steps to be prepared and then on top of it, she fought back, so she wasn’t a willing victim,” he added.
Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call the SLCPD at 801-799-3000. To remain anonymous, text crime tips to 274637. Start the text with the keyword TIPSLCPD (which routes it to SLCPD), then a space, followed by the relevant information or photos. Reference: crimetip.
